


melt

by kingozma



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Except Regis. Sorry Regis, M/M, Panic Attacks, Starscourge, Zegnautus Keep, minivan au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-31 18:47:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15125648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kingozma/pseuds/kingozma
Summary: ouchie ouch ouch(violence warning is due to reportedly kind of graphic descriptions of pain + bodily illness since it’s about ravus turning into a daemon as he does in canon)





	melt

It was a mad dash to find Luna in the compound that Mikami had absolutely nothing to do with.

He was given the job of watching over the being that may or may not be Ravus, once he (it?) had been - at least for the moment - neutralized in combat.

See — when Noct had told the others what he saw with his own eyes, which was the dead body of Ravus Nox Fleuret, Commander of Niflheim’s military, older brother of Lunafreya Nox Fl— You get the idea, Mikami figured he’d lost his chance.

He had particularly high hopes that perhaps it would be possible to reason with Luna’s brother, especially since they had all found a way to bring her back from the edge of death, to see through his eyes and in turn nudge him into thinking a bit more rationally about Noct, Niflheim, and what happened all those years ago to his mother.

So, even though Mikami didn’t show his hand to his comrades, it was naturally crushing. There was an entire human being under that cold, chitinous wall Ravus built around himself. Mikami couldn’t find that human being in time.

And, of course, as anyone can imagine, it was all Mikami’s fault.

One can imagine a little more, then, as we’re in the mood for imagining, the incomprehensible horror the Dilectian felt when he realized that Ravus was not dead at all. It turned out he was far worse than dead.

He was infected. He was not allowed to rest in piece - he was now a chess piece full of pins and needles and black blood too thin to stay in his own system, who had been thrown rather unceremoniously onto the board, as if he was nothing at all.

As if the opponent in this game of chess hadn’t rubbed it in enough, that he could very well win this one.

Mikami wondered where that taunting voice in the walls went, truth be told, now that there was something even more unforgivable to answer for.

“You should have killed me and you very well know it,” said the man trapped inside the one-horned monstrosity that sat beside Mikami now, on one of the beds in the nearest barrack room to the exit they’d just backtracked from. He was clearly trying to maintain his composure, but the pain of being alive when he clearly ought not be alive at all made him shiver, and made his voice waver in pitch.

Alright. It was going to be fine, Mikami told himself, trying to swallow down the rising terror and — vicarious shame in his throat. This is what he was prepared for by the Astrals. He knew being around Ravus wasn’t dangerous for him.

Mikami simply hushed him then, very quietly, insistently, like the way you try to soothe a frightened animal, stroking Ravus’ back.

“We’re not gonna hurt you,” he said, firmly. “You’re one of ours, whether or not you agree with it. We’re gonna take care of you, okay?”

“No you’re not,” replied Ravus, sharply. “You’re not. You aren’t going to take care of anything. It would do you some good to—“ he paused here, gritting his teeth as a bolt of pain shot up his spine, making his legs jitter, and when he started talking again, he was practically snarling, “—face the facts, Mikami Pyrope.”

Mikami quickly sat up, no longer leaning against Ravus’ arm as he was - he didn’t want to make the pain worse, after all. And he was kind of amazed that Ravus remembered his name at all, much less at a time like this.

Ravus went on, “You’re going to repeat after me: There is nothing you can do for me.”

There was a silence.

“I don’t intend on repeating myself, Mikami,” Ravus growled, digging his fingers - claws on one hand - into the mattress at his sides. He only started shaking harder, purposely causing himself physical pain at this point. “Admit it. You are powerless to cure me.”

Mikami did no such thing, and judging by the indignant frown on his face, he would not be intimidated.

Ravus seemed almost impressed for a moment - not by Mikami’s ‘bravery’, no - but by his foolishness. His intelligence, in Ravus’ book, had found a legendary new low that even Noct hadn’t discovered yet.

“You are either being— VERY stubborn, or—“ A pained, shaking gasp, as Ravus shifts and feels something cold and foreign and black poking into his bones that viscerally should not be there, “—You mean to tell me that you really do believe there is a way to simply— magic the Scourge out of me. If you just clap your hands, spin in a circle and believe with all your— heart—“

Ravus’ voice grew more and more wheezy at this point until he started choking, a wet and sickly cough, doubling over as a knee-jerk reaction - even though, when he did that, the pain stabbed through him so acutely that he started to get chills.

And, just as instinctively, Mikami was upon him again, his kind hand stroking Ravus’ burning chest. It probably sounds stupid, maybe it WAS stupid, but he truly had no idea what else to do to ease Ravus’ suffering in the meantime, other than the option that was not an option at all.

“I’ll tell you what we’re gonna do,” he said very carefully, articulately, “We’re gonna bring Luna here as fast as we can, that’s where all the guys just ran off to. She— she just— got separated from us, but they’ll find her right away. And we’re gonna see what the Oracle and—“ Mikami remembered at this point that Ravus doesn’t know what Mikami is, and it should probably stay that way for a while, “— and a healer, can do for you.”

Ravus simply made a noise that sounded like a choked, awful chuckle - humorlessly, darkly - through his nose.

“So you’re fumbling around— in the dark on nothi— nothing but a prayer.”

Mikami, the Astral, blinked for a moment

“I think that’s a very pessimistic way of describing it,” he said, “But... A prayer is one thing you can call it. I would probably call it a theory instead.”

“Ah, so there really is a method to the madness, the—hen.” The agony was becoming too much to bear, Ravus could hardly insult and condescend to Mikami. He’d started to shiver consistently now like he was freezing, and rock gently back and forth, in a very primal attempt to comfort himself. “Do enlighten—lighten— me.”

“Ravus— stop it,” Mikami scolded - he didn’t dare try to make Ravus stop MOVING, that would have done more harm than good on all accounts, so he clarified, “Just— just. Please.”

That seemed to confuse Ravus.

He turned both his eyes - the natural one that was currently untouched by the Starscourge, and the one that was glazed over a strange color with the disease in his system, slowly taking it apart - to Mikami, the malice seeming to melt away a little.

Mikami’s arms were around Ravus’ infected arm now, Mikami’s cheek nuzzling just under his shoulder.

“Please let me help. I want to try,” he said, trying to be strong, trying not to sound scared or upset, but he did wear one feeling on his sleeve: love, in whatever form this was.

All he knew, and all Ravus knew, was that Ravus was dearly loved in this moment.

“I think if me and Luna work together, we might have a shot of... Stabilizing it, maybe not- healing it completely, but we might be able to help you — live. And we can figure out ways to make it not hurt this bad all the time, we can study magic that numbs pain or helps your joints work a little easier, I— I just wanna give you a chance.”

What confused Ravus even more was the choked up sound in Mikami’s voice, and the very obvious sniffle that had just come out of him.

It sounded like it took a terrible amount of strain, with Ravus’ voice wheezing as much as it was, but he asked nonetheless: “What do you... Mean?”

Oh, how Mikami wished he could just turn into his original form and have this talk telepathically! That way, Ravus could be a little more comfortable. Even just that small improvement would have been worth it, it was so horribly tempting that Mikami just.

He stopped and breathed for a second or two.

“You’re just,” Mikami said, “You’re just so young, still.”

That’s what Mikami said about the man who, as far as that man knew, was a good seven, eight years older than Mikami.

“You shou— you shouldn’t have to die now, with. All these unfair things happening again and again to you, and that’s — that being all you know. It’s not fair. You have to see when it gets easier one day, I know it will, we just have to—“

Mikami’s face just crumpled up and he had to watch himself, lest he start crying. He reminded himself, this wasn’t about him and his feelings. This was about Ravus.

He put his hand on Ravus’ chest again, who was dead silent as if the little man beside him had just started speaking a foreign language.

“I wanna do my best for you,” Mikami said, voice soft and airy, “That’s. That’s all. I’m gonna do my very best for you, and. We’re gonna see what happens. I think— I think it’ll work. I think it will.”

Ravus... Took a moment to find his voice in his own throat again, between the pain and the strange kindness Mikami was showing him, and when he found the words to describe the revelation he just had, he shared it.

“... You were always the strange one,” he said. “Out of the five of you. You were the odd one out somehow, whether it was your strange — Pseudo... Tenebraean attire, or how you kept- always trying to.”

He just looked lost, at this point.

“Be... Kind to me. For no— no real reason I could make sense of. You just. Wanted to be kind to me.”

Ravus glanced down at Mikami.

“... Why? I can’t make sense of it— even now, I... What have I done, in all the time you’ve known me, to earn your favor?”

Mikami had never heard it worded that bluntly, that honestly before, not even in his own head, and he had a bit of a strange revelation, himself.

The list of things he could blame on Agape was becoming very thread-thin, indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> note: the setting/premise of this is VERY shaky as zegnautus keep goes very differently in this AU than it does canonically, but i figured its better to write than not write.
> 
> the abrupt ending is both intentional (mikamis like “haha i guess my inexplicable urge to be ravus’ friend and the brightest hope in his life WAS just me being gay as hell”) and not intentional (im so sleepy right now that i have to stop writing and like, sure i could just put this down and finish tomorrow but i have ADHD and crave immediate peer recognition and gratification so like, there’s that - so sorry if this isn’t particularly in character for ravus) but like - ravus gets better lol. better as in “can live a manageable life” not “completely free of starscourge”
> 
> the very mean descriptions of ravus as a gross contagious monster with nothing to really live for are intentionally there, they’re not my actual view of starscourge victims - that common in universe viewpoint of sufferers as hopeless Impure monsters without any agency or significance to their existence is a big point of this AU since we handle them more like a disabled + chronically ill population, once more is learned about the starscourge and how much of it that luna can heal (or neutralize, or NOT heal), that needs genuine compassion and accommodation than a medieval plague colony


End file.
